Tweeting about a conference has never been so cool! Excited to be in Florence for my first #SIRS! If you're not too busy at Uffizi or dining on a fiorentina steak, come find my poster on Saturday and chat with me about brain connectivity, schizophrenia & pragmatics🧠 @sirsofficial.bsky.social
Federico Frau
@federicofrau.bsky.social
Jr Assistant Professor @ IUSS Pavia #NEPLab | PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience & Philosophy of Mind | Psycho/Neurolinguistics | Into brain, pragmatic skills, multimodality in meaning & mental imagery 🔍🧠🗣️ X: @federico_frau
Don't miss the opportunity to attend the #DISCOURSE2026 Satellite Meeting in Pavia, March 30-31, sponsored by the #EducatingFutureCitizens (EFC) EU project. Info & registration: neplab.it/discourse_ho... (registration is open until full capacity is reached) #IUSSPavia #IMTLucca #NEPLab
Can GPT replace human raters of metaphors? Our new work with @vmangiaterra.bsky.social @cbarattieri.bsky.social @al-azary.bsky.social Across 687 Italian & English metaphors, GPT shows strong validity & reliability, but stumbles when meaning becomes sensorimotor ➡️ arxiv.org/abs/2512.12444 #NEPLab
Delighted to share that I’m starting a new role as Jr Assistant Professor (RTDa) at IUSS within the #DIALOG project funded by @wellcometrust.bsky.social–as part of @valentinabambini.bsky.social's unit🎉 No better way to celebrate than with Italian pastries & the amazing support of the #NEPLab team🍰🤍
I really had a great time at #XPRAG2025 in Cambridge, where I presented novel EEG data showing that we can prime figurative meaning in metaphors and modulate late effects in ERP response, as well as our cross-diagnostic study of pragmatic impairment in relation to theory of mind #NEPLab
So glad to have attended my first #SNL conference and presented a poster with @riccardoventurini.bsky.social, showing beta functional connectivity alterations linked to pragmatic impairment in schizophrenia. Great time here in Washington and inspiring talks at Gallaudet University 🧠 #NEPLab #SNL2025
New paper out on Philos Trans R Soc B 🚨 We conducted the first large-scale cross-diagnostic analysis of pragmatic impairment in 7 clinical groups, highlighting profiles of communicative weaknesses and their association with theory of mind skills @royalsocietypublishing.org #NEPLab 🧠
Next Monday, the #IUSSLinguisticsSeminar will host Dr. Nadine Dijkstra, who will introduce us to the neural correlates of mental imagery, with a focus on the mechanisms allowing us to discern a mental image from a real visual percept. 🗓️June 16, 11-12.30am CEST Zoom link: tinyurl.com/keap95ks #NEPLab
Today, we double our IUSS Linguistics Seminars, with two talks covering topics from metaphor and emotional experience, to communication and connection in development (ft Jeannette Littlemore & Merideth Gattis) 🤩 ➡️ 3-7pm, CEST Zoom link: iusspavia.zoom.us/my/br.salade... #NEPLab
Next week (12.05), the IUSS Linguistics Seminars series will host Mikhail Kissine, don't miss it! Info to attend either in person or online below ⬇️
Join us for an enlightening seminar on Language development and autism with Mikhail Kissine from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Date: May 12, 2025 Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm CEST 💻 Attend online via Zoom: iusspavia.zoom.us/my/br.salade... #NEPLab @valentinabambini.bsky.social
The Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics meets the father of Experimental Pragmatics! @irastamon.bsky.social thanks for the visit! #NEPLab
Save the date! #IUSSLinguisticsSeminar Tomorrow, Prof. Francesco Vespignani (@UniPadova) will present the application of power spectrum analysis to study the neural response to phrases and sentences 🗓️February 18, 9-10.30 am CET 📍@IussPavia Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/yc2vsnx6 #NEPLab
Don't miss the first #IUSSLinguisticsSeminar of the 2025 series: EEG source connectivity in neuropsychiatric disorders: the case of schizophrenia, w/ Prof. Giorgio Di Lorenzo (@unitorvergata) 🗓️February 10, 3.30-5.00 pm CET 📍@IussPavia Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3ncx7b7f #NEPLab
I can't wait to discuss one of my favorite topics with the team of the PRIN Project "Metaphor & Epistemic Injustice in Mental Illness" (@fraervas @sophia_79 & Francesca Ferri). I'll bring a neuropragmatic perspective & our works on metaphor comprehension in schizophrenia #NEPLab
I'm so happy to share our new paper published on #JML, which is the product of an amazing collaboration with @PennyPexman and @ejmuraki (with @VBambini and @lucabischetti #NEPLab) 🎊🎉 Here is the link to read the full paper: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jvXQ_,1j5ABHL5 1/3
#ESLP2024 brought some great talks and remarkable keynote speakers (but also a lot of mental imagery!), so glad I had the opportunity to be there and present our work to the amazing embodied language community! @bll_berlin #embodiment #NEPLab
The German delegation of the #NEPLab is ready for #ESLP2024 conference starting tomorrow (but still getting used to German sunny weather 🌧️)
I couldn't be more grateful to the #XPRAGit2024 committee for awarding me the Young Researcher Award for the best presentation, dedicated to the memory of Bruno Bara. Having started my journey in experimental pragmatics from his works, this award really means a lot to me! #NEPLab
Just arrived in Venice and already feeling the #XPRAGit2024 vibes!🤩 If you want to know everything about imagery and metaphors in the brain, don't miss my poster (poster session 1) and talk (oral session 4B)🧠💪🏻 (w/ @VBambini @PaoloCanal1 @chiara_pompei5 @mb_bressler)
Summer is over and we are back to look at some waves in the brain 🧠🤓 Today, we launched the new EEG study on metaphor processing for the "PROMENADE" #ERC grant coordinated by @VBambini #NEPLab @IussPavia #neuropragmatics
Yesterday I (finally) defended my PhD thesis on #multimodality in #language – focusing on #metaphors, #sensorimotor experience, and #imagery – grounded (pun intended 😜) in #Neuropragmatics! 🎉 Super happy to work on this nice topic and super grateful to my supervisor @VBambini
Are you curious to know how metaphors help us learn scientific concepts? Don't miss the next IUSS Linguistics seminar with Prof. @Vicky_T_Lai at @IussPavia (11.00-12.30 CEST, info below ⬇️) In-person venue: Palazzo del Broletto, Sala del Camino) Zoom Link: https://iusspavia.zoom.us/j/81947250839
Don't miss today's IUSS #LinguisticsSeminar with Prof. Nicola Grandi (@Unibo), who will present data on the written Italian of young university students at the interface of #sociolinguistics and linguistic #typology 📍@IussPavia, Sala del Camino Zoom link: https://iusspavia.zoom.us/j/81947250839
Thanks to @BarlatiStefano for mentioning our meta-analysis (out soon in Brain&Language) on the relationship between pragmatics, executive functions, and social cognition in #schizophrenia, with implications for treatment. Stay tuned for the full paper! #discourse2024
Today don't miss our first 2024 Linguistics Seminar at @IussPavia: Prof. Robyn Carston (UCL) will discuss the role of words in the interface syntax-pragmatics interface from the perspective of theoretical pragmatics 💻Zoom link: https://iusspavia.zoom.us/my/br.saladelcamino ��️11 am CET
First day in London with classic British weather, couldn't imagine anything better to start my visiting period at #UCL 🤩🇬🇧 #pragmatics
#XPRAG2023 has finally started (with a super keynote speaker, Prof. Thomas Holtgraves)! Great to be here in Paris with all the #XPRAG community 🤩🇨🇵
Glad to have brought a piece of "embodiment meets neuropragmatics" at #IndiPRAG2023 Workshop! #XPRAG2023 #neuropragmatics
The #XPRAG week started with a great talk by Kirsten Abbot-Smith here at #IndiPRAG2023 Workshop on environmental, cognitive, and socio-cognitive factors influencing pragmatic skills and social interaction in typical and atypical children #XPRAG2023 #pragmatics @chiara_pompei5
First subject tested with our new #EEG experiment at the NEP Lab!!🧠 Doing some serious #neuropragmatic stuff here this summer 😎☀️